"Captain Boycott" is a film that caught me by surprise. I thought it would be a nice adventure story starring Stewart Granger...period. However, there was less adventure than I'd expected AND I ended up learning some cool history. As a retired history teacher, this was mega-cool (I cannot believe I just said 'mega-cool'....that is so unlike me). What I didn't realize is that the film is about the origination of the term 'boycott'...and that boycotts are named after someone...a very jerky someone at that!
The story is set in Ireland in the 19th century. Considering the potato blight had decimated the population (many migrating abroad and many simply dying of starvation), it's no wonder that the story is very pro-Irish--the 19th century was certainly bad for them. What made it worse were jerk-face (I cannot believe I just said 'jerk-face') landlords who responded to this poverty by evicting the tenant farmers--thus increasing the misery. Fed up with one particularly nasty landlord, Captain Boycott (that was his real-life name!), the Irish set about stopping these excesses through the use of boycotts! Watch the film to see what all this is about and if you like history lessons, you'll probably enjoy this surprisingly interesting and well made film. Worth a look.
